SAN FRANCISCO (MCT) -- To prevent and contain outbreaks of food-borne illness, which sicken 1 in 6 Americans annually, a Bay Area startup is developing bar codes that go directly on fruits and vegetables. But you may overlook them: they're DNA-size. Using technology invented at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, DNATrek is creating liquids that each contain a unique DNA sequence. The odorless, colorless and tasteless solution peppers the surface of produce, or blends into other oils and liquids, with a genetic bar code that can be identified by a special machine. The technology could solve the enormous challenge of tracing an outbreak's source -- the places where food items are grown, packed and shipped. When people start feeling the symptoms of salmonella or E. coli, many clues about the contaminated product's origins, such as the shipment boxes, already have disappeared. The Food and Drug Administration has already recognized the invention as a safe food additive, but for now, the industry does not use it. After large-scale tests that are set to begin next year, DNATrek believes that its tool will emerge as a powerful weapon against food-borne illnesses, which cost the country an estimated $150 billion a year in health-related … Continue reading →

Had the person who killed Nicole Franco worn gloves, he might still be free. Instead, DNA left behind by Franco's young neighbor was enough to make an arrest, the lead detective said. Franco, 19, a pastry chef and culinary arts student known to friends and family as Nikki, was stabbed multiple times in the chest with one of her own knives during a burglary in her Oakland Park apartment June 3. A pool at the Bridgewater Place gated apartments stood between her building and that of D'Marcus Tucker, 15, who lived with his mother and a sibling in the 2700 block of Northwest 44th Street. Tucker was arrested Oct. 31 and will be charged with her murder, authorities said. The investigation "There was not a lot of evidence," said Broward Sheriff's Detective Kevin Forsberg, lead investigator in the five-month-old case. "We had prints on a door. There was nothing else inside." Franco was asleep about 3:30 a.m., beneath a new comforter her mother had sent from New Jersey, when she was attacked. The murder weapon cut through the bed cover. "The swabs taken from around the incise marks was our Hail Mary, and we thought it was the best possible … Continue reading →